Joel Johnson

Boats are good at being in water, I'm told. But when two Nantucket men were thrown overboard from their 26-foot "pleasure boat" three years ago, they never expected to see her again. Until the boat was found — three years and 3,500 nautical miles later.

The Queen Bee was a trouper, though, and wandered aimlessly in the Atlantic until last week, when she was found looking slightly worse for wear off the coast of Spain.

This latter-day Flying Dutchman likely drifted north in the Gulf Stream until it hit the North Atlantic Current, which probably carried the little boat all the way to its final destination — just 20 miles from the northern beaches of Spain.

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That was 3,500 nautical miles from where her soggy crew had crawled onto the shores of Esther Island, expecting never to see her again.

The ship's original owner — maritime law dictates the Spanish Maritime Rescue Coordination Center, the organization that found the derelict vessel, now owns the boat — has no plans to reunite with the Queen Bee at this time.